Mind-forged manacles

Blog | 08.03.2009 | 2 Comments

“In every cry of every Man,
In every Infant’s cry of fear,
In every voice, in every ban,
The mind-forg’d manacles I hear.”
-excerpt from Blake’s poem London

A friend who expands my horizon, as opposed to a friend who shrinks my horizon, introduced me to William Blake’s poem London which speaks of mind forged manacles.  A manacle is something that constrains or restrains (think handcuffs), the mind being the center of our perception, and to forge is a word we use for the intentional manufacturing of something (hammering into a shape). So one could understand ‘a mind forged manacle’ to be those restraining/constraining (mindcuffing) perceptions that our minds manufacture.  Got any?  If you can’t think of any ‘mindcuffs’ just take inventory of your life where there is no freedom, no joy, bondage, despair, darkness, and gloom.  Good chance there is a ‘mind forged manacle’ at work.
I submit to you the entire poem London by William Blake.
I submit to you a worthy reaction to the poem in the following link.

I submit to you a challenge to really think and not just passively ‘feel’ your way through a life tossed about by unexamined motives and thought processes.  I challenge you to make friends with people who don’t just massage your virtue (these relationships are usually false anyway) and force you to really take inventory of who you are and your need to accept yourself but not your sin.  I challenge you to examine the ‘mind forged manacles’ of religion and reject all that is not gospel.

A true revolutionary changes the way we think and perceive reality, Jesus was a true revolutionary in that He changes the way His followers perceive reality. Is it any wonder that He is the one true mediator between God and man (1 Tim 2:5)?  Jesus calls us to cast off the ‘mind forged manacles’ of the law and self deceived confidence in our own virtue.  He calls us to be poor in spirit.  Such casting away of ‘mind forged manacles’ results a life that runs counter to the mind forged manacles of the world around us. We lose our life in order to find it.  We loose our mind forged manacles so that we can find true living, abundant living, unrestrained, even to the point of death (see early Church).

2 Comments

by Matt on 03.05.2010 

I dare you to continue that line of thought. What mindcuffs are you harboring? What barriers do you hide behind? If you shy away from certain thoughts as you read this, no matter what they may be, those are probably your tightest mindcuffs. I really must congratulate you on the term “mindcuff”. I’ll be using it in the paper I’m writing (properly citing this article of course). I wouldn’t mind hearing from the author, either. I think we could have an interesting conversation.

by tom on 03.10.2010 

Dare taken. What mindcuff am I harboring? Fear. What barriers do I hide behind? The false self, in all of its parasitic manifestations. I agree that what we shy from are probably the tightest mindcuffs because shyness involves inhibition. Shyness has been described as “a social psychology term used to describe the feeling of apprehension, lack of confidence, or awkwardness experienced when a person is in proximity to, approaching, or being approached by other people, especially in new situations or with unfamiliar people.” Would love to communicate with you sometime.

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